Out of the wild
by LM1991
Summary: Two young otters are separated from their family. POM-characters show up in and after chapter 17. If you don't like OC's, don't read.
1. Chapter 1

**Out of the wild**

**Summary:**The lives of a wild otter family will never be the same again after the humans' decision to make a recreational pool out of their lake. Two young twin brothers are separated from this family and must learn to cope on their own or suffer the punishment nature gives to those who aren't careful of where they put their feet. But something happens no one could have foreseen.

**Disclaimer: **The Penguins of Madagascar, as TV show is property of Nickelodeon, DreamWorks Animation, Mark McCorkle, Bob Schooley and... other people. All recognizable characters are theirs. The characters you DON'T recognize and are therefore mine, are Double and Trouble, their family and some random characters along the way.

**Other information: **genre is adventure/friendship/humor, I'll introduce a lot of OC's, so if you don't like OC's, turn back now. Rating: T.

_A/N__: This __is the first English story I'm actually posting somewhere so others can read it. I HAVE written other English stories, but those were for my own amusement!_

_I'm trying to be brave here, so don't break my fragile braveness when it's just a growing little squirt. Give me feedback I can DO something with. Please, thank you. _

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**Chapter 1: Prologue**

Picture this: a lake as big as a small village. Sunlight shining on water, small silver fish darting below the waves. Small waves lapping the shores of sandy beaches. Trees scattered along the bordering of grass and beach. Above those trees, mountains are visible, clearly showing the evidence of heavy snowfall in the winter, even if it's the middle of the summer.

Flying above all that are water fowl and small birds like robins and sparrows. Closer to the ground, mammals, insects and reptiles walk. In the water, those small special silver fish. Behind them, following closely behind, are the predators, hoping to catch just _one_ – but preferably more – of those small all-you-can-eat-buffets.

You, my readers, have no business in the mountains, the trees or even the grass. Although all of these things are, of course, pearls of nature, the story I will tell you does not need these beautiful pearls of nature. The scenery this story needs is the lake. And the shore. An otter's burrow along those shores… and, of course, the main characters: a family group of otters.

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_And that's my prologue. Please tell me if you think I should continue posting this story – mind, most chapters will not be as descriptive as this one…_

_Review, please!_


	2. Chapter 2: What we do in our free time

**Out of the wild**

_Thanks for reviewing, people! It boosted my self-confidence. __Well, now that I have readers, I'll give my readers what they want; me continuing the story! _

**Disclaimer: **The Penguins of Madagascar, as TV show is property of Nickelodeon, DreamWorks Animation, Mark McCorkle, Bob Schooley and... other people. All recognizable characters are theirs. The characters you DON'T recognize and are therefore mine, are Double and Trouble, their family and some random characters along the way.

**Chapter 2: What we do in our free time**

Somewhere close to the lake, two otters were busy with something. Well, one of them was busy with something. The other was busy glaring at the other and trying to get him to stop doing whatever the other, almost identical, otter was doing.

"Double, don't!" one of the two young otters groaned, holding a paw to his head in frustration. He was looking at his brother, who was digging around in a beaver's dam. The otter known as Double ignored his brother, grabbed a tree stump, grunted, and rolled it off the dam. "Double, I'm serious!"

Double poked his head above a tree that was still in its almost-full form - probably it wasn't stripped of its leaves and bark by the beavers yet. Double's eyes were sparkling with mischief and he grinned at his unwilling accomplice.

"Come on, Trouble, learn to have a little fun!"

"I don't see any fun in wrecking Mrs. Beaver's dam," the unwilling accomplice, also known as Trouble, declared. "If she finds out it was you she'll use your body for a toothpick."

"Yada, yada, yada, I'm not listening!" Double grinned and he dived back into the pile of wood, digging around in it like a mole would in ground. Except he wasn't a mole and it was wood he was digging around in. Trouble just stared at the dam his brother had disappeared into, until Double's voice piped up from underneath a couple of branches. "Oh, look at that, didn't know Mrs. Beaver collected these…"

"Double!" Trouble yelled, shocked that his brother would actually sink so low to actually go digging in other animal's belongings. "Stop that!"

The branches shook lightly like Double was shaking them like a parody of prison bars.

"Get your tail out of that knot, Trouble!" Double's voice piped up again. "It's going fine in here, I assure you!"

The branches shook again as if Double was trying to prove he could do this, and nothing would happen. For several seconds, nothing did happen, indeed.

Then, apart from the branches, the whole dam started shaking. Trouble could just watch with eyes like saucers when the dam lost its balance, grunted like a dying animal and collapsed.

Trouble ran to the dam at top speed, waving away the dust-cloud that had been shot into the air thanks to the collapsing of the – apparently very dusty – dam. He jumped on top of it and started pulling branches and pushing stumps and other parts of trees out of the way to get to his brother.

Just a minute later, Double's very dusty face appeared from underneath a very leafy branch. Trouble smiled widely, grabbed his brother by the arm and tugged him free from the pile of wood that had been a dam. After that loss of the only thing holding the last part of it upright, the last part of the dam collapsed.

"Double? Double! Say something to me! Anything!" a worried Trouble shouted in his unconscious brother's face, slightly tapping that same unconscious face.

That woke Double up. He opened his eyes and glanced around him in shock. Then, he turned his head back to his very relieved brother.

The only thing Double mumbled, was a very sheepish: "Oops."

"…I don't know if it's because of that hit on your head or because it's just you, but I'm taking you back to Ma."

Double gasped.

"No! Don't tell her I did this! She'll kill me!"

"And that's exactly what you deserve, you sneaky house breaker. Oh, and I'm not carrying you, so walk on your own."

"…Aw."

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Long hours after the twins had gone home, a very confused Mrs. Beaver broke her head over the fact that her dam – correction, what had _been_ a dam once – had been turned into a big pile of wreckage pieces.

"Dammed, what happened to my dam?"

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_And there it is! My first real chapter! With dialogue, with descriptions – not like the prologue__, darn short thing – but, so! Did you like it? Hate it? Give it roses of use it as an indicator to tell you when your water is cooking – even though its bubbles should tell you?_

_Right. Anyway, I'm Dutch, so give me tips, tell me if I should improve anything and please, please, I'm begging you, give nice reviews!_


	3. Chapter 3: Meet Ma  Ma always says

**Out of the wild**

_I solemnly swear I will update even if I just have ONE reviewer. __Readers are readers after all. _

**Disclaimer: **Not mine! If it was, I'd be rich and swimming in money, which I'm not.

**Chapter 3: Meet Ma / Ma always says…**

The first thing Double and Trouble's mother grumbled when she saw her sons walking towards her – one of them covered in dirt and the other supporting him –Trouble had cracked under his brother's constant begging to be carried or at the least supported – was: "Trouble, what did you do to your brother?"

Trouble, upset his mother thought this was his fault – and again it was _his_ fault, never his brother's, no, because Trouble just _had_ to be noble and take all the blame for Double's previous stunts – let go of Double and rushed to his mother to try and get her to believe him. Because of that action, Double toppled over.

"…Ow," Double mumbled. Not because he was in so much pain, but in a reaction to toppling over to the ground.

Their mother glared at Trouble and gestured to Double. "You see what you did?"

"I didn't do it, Ma!" a desperate Trouble yelled. Ma grabbed Trouble by the shoulders and turned him towards Double, who was still lying on the ground. Trouble blinked. "Oh. I let go of him, didn't I?"

"Yes," Ma hissed. "Care to explain why your brother is all dusty and you had to help him along?"

"Because he kept poking me and begged me to carry him, but he's way too heavy for me, so I just supported him," Trouble babbled. He smiled innocently at his mother, who was shaking her head.

A few minutes later, Trouble had told his mother everything. Ma's intense glare could do wonders… Unfortunately, she didn't believe a word of the tale and told him to: "Just wait till your father gets home, young man!"

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_Yes, that's it for this chapter. A tiny one, but hey, I updated fast! Very fast. Yay for me!  
>Please give me tips – and some nice reviews. <em>


	4. Chapter 4: Meet the younger siblings

**Out of the wild**

_The fourth chapter! I have written like a maniac! __…Okay, I have not. I'll tell you a secret. I have this story done 'till chapter… what, twelve? I'm just busy putting each chapter in a separate document and re-reading it before I post it. And I want to keep you readers a little bit in suspense. I'm evil, I know. But hey, the evil laughter is a plus!_

**Disclaimer: **It's not mine. But this plot is!

**Chapter 4: Meet the two younger siblings**

Time passed while they were waiting for Pa to return. In civilisation, people would panic if their loved ones stayed out as long as the twin's father did. The sun set, and Pa was not back yet.

Good thing this was the wild. The family was used to it that their family-members stayed out until dark, or sometimes later.

And a good thing the twins were kept busy, and that they were not the only pups Ma and Pa ever had. Double and Trouble had to babysit their younger sister Flower so they wouldn't be bored. Of course, Double preferred to be bored over watching his little sister. But he also preferred to be thought of as a good son, so he kept his mouth shut, didn't tell his mother his injuries had been caused by him and not by Trouble, and watched Flower play with a small rock she had found in their burrow.

Until young Flower decided it would be fun to bounce the small rock around the burrow, that is.

That had Double and Trouble ducking out of the path of the bouncing rock all the time, until the small rock glanced off a particularly weird-shaped other rock and hit the back of Double's head.

"Ow!" Double yelped. He rubbed the back of his head and glared at his younger sister. "Did you think that was funny?"

Flower just giggled like it was the funniest thing she had ever seen – of course she thought it was funny!

"You're lucky Ma is out catching our dinner, Flower," Trouble grinned, popping his head out of his hiding place. "Or else you'd be in a lot of trouble."

Flower smiled widely, her hazel eyes flashing with something that could have been mischief, and bounced over to give both of her older brothers a hug. Double's glare immediately melted off his face while he hugged her back. Trouble just shook his head, amused his brother was so easy with forgiving their youngest sibling.

And speaking of siblings… Their slightly younger brother Weird came bounding into the burrow, brown fur bristling like he was trying to scare off a predator, yelling like a maniac and… diving behind Double and Flower for cover.

The twins and Flower just glanced at him and turned back to the important business of everyday life like this was a normal occurrence. And the following was apparently normal too.

Ma came storming into the burrow, a few caught fishes in her paws. She pointed at Weird. A fish fell out of her paws and landed on the ground, flipping slightly like it was trying to escape Ma's wrath. Ma's wrath, however, was turned on Weird.

"I'm not done bathing you, young man!" Ma yelled, throwing aside the other fishes. The twins were quick to catch them and brought them to a small pond in the middle of the burrow to keep them alive. Flower stayed were she was. And Weird was happy to keep hiding behind her.

Weird poked his head out from behind Flower and wailed: "But I'll melt in water!"

It was silent for a moment. Then, Double and Trouble burst out laughing. Flower didn't get it and just glanced behind her at the slightly hysterical Weird like she had just discovered he was hiding behind her.

"You went swimming with us yesterday!" Double grinned, after shaking off his laughter.

"That's… that's totally different! That water didn't want to eat me…"

Trouble chuckled for a moment, then grabbed a fish out of the small pond and started eating, following the conversation with his eyes like he was looking at a tennis match.

"Eat you?" Double asked, slightly confused.

"Yeah! It eats my dust!" Weird exclaimed, holding onto Flower for support. "I don't want it to eat my dust… I happen to love my dust."

Flower stayed where she was, but spoke up with her tiny voice: "But dust is yucky!"

Weird took it like an insult to heart, "No it isn't!"

"It is!"

"It isn't!" Weird yelled, coming out from behind Flower and yelling the sentence in her face.

"It _is!_" young Flower yelled back, unwilling to back down.

Ma immediately stepped in between the two siblings, "Stop it, both of you." She turned her head towards Weird. "Pa can come back any minute now. Do you want him to see how dusty you are?"

Weird pouted and hung his head.

"No…" he mumbled in a small voice.

Ma nodded, "Then…" she just said, and pointed to the exit of the burrow. Weird didn't have to hear anything else and trudged out of the burrow. Ma followed him.

"There he went again," Trouble commented dryly, having finished his dinner. Double smiled, went to get his own dinner, and dinner for Flower because her hazel eyes begged him to.

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_And there's chapter 4! I love Weird and Flower… what about you, my readers? Hey, if you're still angry about the whole 'twelve-chapters-done-thing', I'll update a few more chapters for you. See what I can do in a short time of just an half an hour, eh? ('Cuz I have school then…)_


	5. Chapter 5: To kill time, etcetera

**Out of the wild**

_Chapter 5! _

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the POM-characters. I do, however, own Double, Trouble, their family and some random characters along the way!

**Chapter 5: To kill time and we finally get to meet Pa**

Pa still was not back yet, Weird was all clean thanks to the lake and Ma, and the family was in need of killing some time.

And they killed time by playing a game Pa had taught them: Catch-The-Rock. Basically it was played by two otters, with another as the one to throw the rock up in the air, while the two players were supposed to catch the rock. The one to catch it was the winner. Sometimes, if they had something worth the effort, the audience would place bets over who they thought would win.

Yes, it was a simple game, but if you're bored, amusing yourself with silly little things isn't that hard.

Double and Trouble had finished their own game with an audience consisting of Ma, Weird and Flower – with a very interested Flower watching her brothers' every move – and they put the rock on the ground and stepped aside so other players could have a go.

Ma stepped forward, picked up the stone and looked at Weird, who was lost in his imagination and wasn't paying any attention to his surroundings.

"Do you want to play, Weird?" she asked, holding up the stone for him.

Weird startled and looked up with wide eyes. It was clear he didn't want to – he was busy fantasizing about something only he knew!

Flower rescued her brother from that terrible dilemma by bouncing up to her mother and tugging on her paw.

"I wanna play, Ma!" she chirped hopefully.

Ma smiled and nodded at her daughter.

"Sure you can play, Flower, sweetie." Flower cheered. "Weird, you don't mind, do you?"

Weird did not mind. Not at all. He was busy dreaming the day away. Ma, noticing Weird's vacant expression, shrugged and motioned for Double to come over and be the rock-tosser.

While Flower and Ma went to sit on the floor, Trouble grabbed his brother's arm and whispered: "Two sticklebacks say Flower wins…"

Double chuckled, "You kidding? Ma can beat Flower with her eyes closed… You're on! You'd better go catch those two sticklebacks for me, Trouble, dear brother, because it's clear I'll win this little bet…"

Double turned and went to Ma and Flower. Trouble's eyes twinkled like they were saying: _don't be too sure_… Not like Double – or anyone else for that matter – saw Trouble's meaningful twinkling eyes.

Double picked up the stone that Ma had put on the ground and moved in between the two otters who were sitting on the ground, both completely focused on the rock like a dog would focus on a bone. Double glanced from Ma's face to Flower's, mulled over a few different ways to throw the rock and then… he threw the rock as high in the air as the burrow's ceiling would allow.

Double dashed aside – just in time, because Flower and Ma jumped up, followed the rock's fall with their eyes, and pounced in the direction the rock fell.

The rock fell to the ground and bounced a few times, followed by Ma and Flower.

"C'mon, Ma!" Double cheered his favourite on.

"C'mon, Flower, use that small agile body of yours!" Trouble cheered for his favourite. "Duck around her!"

And ducking around Ma and using her agility to its limit, Flower did. Weird was the only one of the audience that had no idea what was going on and was the only one not interested in the outcome of the game.

Ma wasn't making it easy for Flower and wasn't planning to be tricked by her youngest child, but Flower's agility added one thing to the mix of determination and a winning streak: Ma tripped over Flower's small body and went tumbling to the ground.

Flower, not one to miss an opportunity, dashed to the rock and grabbed it. Then, she turned around and jumped for joy, immediately joined by Trouble, who grabbed her paws and pulled her into a small victory dance, both singing a short jokingly mocking song directed at Ma.

Double's face was priceless, Ma bore it like she hadn't just tumbled to the ground and looked like she was considering returning the favour with a jokingly mocking song of her own and Weird… did not even know the game was finished and was busy staring at the ceiling of the burrow.

During Trouble and Flower's victory dance, Pa came home – he just stepped into the burrow, paws full of small presents for his kids and mate and declared cheerfully: "I come bearing gifts!"

He stopped short when he noticed the excitement.

Double's face stopped resembling a gaping fish and he smiled widely. He pounced on his father, immediately followed by Trouble and Flower (Weird was three seconds late because he had to wake up from a day-dream), all of them happily yelling: "Daddy!"

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_Aww, don't you love it when daddy comes home? Please review!__ Be happy, review – okay, and be nice to me in reviews. _


	6. Chapter 6: Meet River

**Out of the wild**

_The sixth chapter!_

**Disclaimer: **Not mine. Don't sue, be happy.

**Chapter 6: Meet River**

Pa laughed loudly, hugging his pups to his chest and accidentally succeeding to drop all presents to the ground. Ma tutted, went to pick up the fallen presents and held onto them until her children would be done hogging Pa's attention. A small smile lingered on Ma's lips, though.

"Daddy, we missed you!" Flower squealed, having secured her arms tightly around her father's waist.

"What did you bring with you?" Weird asked, almost bouncing up and down in his giddiness. "Huh, huh, huh?"

At the mentioning of presents, all four pups squealed excitedly, looking up at their father with adoring eyes. Pa just bore it all with a forgiving smile, a few pats on the heads and a few winks at his two youngest pups Flower and Weird, who were at the highest peak of excitement out of all four kids.

"I brought something for all of you," Pa announced after a not-so-silent silence (the pups were squealing like mad) and he gestured at the burrow's entrance – with a little difficulty because he had four otter pups attached to him. "And River's bringing the rest of it, plus he has some information for this years' meeting."

Double and Trouble smiled widely, Flower squealed again and Weird bounced around like he thought he was some kind of bouncy ball. Then, a storm of questions came knocking.

"Really?"

"How is River? We haven't seen him in _ages_!" Flower said.

Double grinned, "Yeah! Is he still with that nut of a Nutmeg?"

"Double!" Trouble scolded, but the smile on his face told a different story than what his scolding tone said. "Nutmeg may miss a few tree branches up here…" Trouble pointed at his head. "But she's a nice girl."

"Yeah!" young Flower piped up. "She showed me a way to weave buttercups into a necklace! I can see why our brother wanted her to be his mate…"

"Oh, yeah, he chose her because she's so incredibly good at making buttercup necklaces!" Double said sarcastically.

"Actually it was because Nutmeg's a sweet girl and she knows her way in the funniness of the world," a new voice said from the doorway. Everyone turned to the new voice.

"River!" Flower squeaked, letting go of her father, running up to her oldest brother and tackling him into a hug.

"Whoa, Small Fry!" River laughed, catching his young sister and swinging her around slightly, causing her to giggle out loud.

"Hey River," Double and Trouble greeted at the same time.

"Hey, D and T!" River greeted back, putting his sister back on her own two feet despite her protests. "Got into any… double trouble lately?"

Trouble pointed at his brother and whispered so Ma couldn't hear, "He did."

River shook his head, amused at this, and turned to Weird, "Yo, big man!" he said. He had to pick up Flower again because she was bouncing around his feet like a small excited puppy.

Weird, ignoring his sister, waved like mad, "Hi River! Ma bathed me and the water didn't eat me!"

"I see that, considering you're still here…" River mumbled, and then he turned towards his sister. "And Flower! Any news?"

Flower smiled widely at the attention she was getting, "I beat Ma at Catch-The-Rock!"

River gasped dramatically. "No way!"

"Yes way!" Flower immediately responded, nodding her little head yes.

"Good job, Small Fry," River said fondly, and he messed up the fur on top of Flower's head.

Flower protested and Ma stepped forward, quickly handing out the presents – effectively making Flower jump out of River's embrace to take her present – and hugged her oldest pup.

"Hey sweetie," she greeted him.

"Hello Ma," River said softly, returning the hug and smiling at his mother.

Ma leaned back and smiled at River and then blurted: "So, can I expect grandchildren anytime soon?"

"Ma!" River exclaimed, shocked.

Ma waved her paws about in a gesture of apology. "Sorry, sorry," she said quickly, and then smiled hopefully: "…Well?"

River grumbled something that sounded suspiciously like: 'mad woman, only thinks about becoming a grandma…', but then he glanced around at everyone around him and mumbled softly: "…Maybe…" Ma squealed happily. River interrupted her. "Calm down, Ma! Nutmeg's not sure yet…"

"On the subject of Nutmeg, where is she?" Trouble asked, glancing around the burrow as if he was expecting Nutmeg to jump out of some hiding place and yell: 'surprise!'. Well, surprise, she didn't.

"She's with her brothers, still at the meeting," River said. He turned towards Pa. "Oh, and Pa, we're turning the meeting into a competition this time. Thought you might want to know, considering you're the leader of the clans and all…"

"Remind me, why don't you," Pa chuckled. "Who brought up the idea for the competition, anyway?"

River smiled widely at Pa. "Aunt Rush did!"

"Ah, good for her," Pa said, smiling slightly as if he was seeing his sister's face in his mind's eye. "When's the meeting anyway?"

"Tomorrow."

Everyone's smiles faded.

"Oh. We might want to hurry, then…" Flower mumbled.

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_That's it.__ *grins* Three chapters posted in one go! What about that, huh? You like them? Tell me!_


	7. Chapter 7: The OtterLympics, part 1

**Out of the wild**

_Chapter 7!_

**Disclaimer: **The POM-characters are not mine. Double, Trouble, their family and some random characters along the way are, though.

**Chapter 7: The Otter-Lympics: part 1**

And they did go to the place where the meeting was to be held, in a hurry. Mostly because the place where the meeting was to be held was not close _at all_ to any clan's territory.

Why? Well, if one place close to a clan's territory would be used as the meeting's place it would have to give fish to about forty-something otters who were all living in this lake and that wouldn't be good. If that happened, that particular territory wouldn't recover to its original state anytime soon.

So, that's why the meeting's place _never_ would be a place anywhere near a clan's territory.

The journey to the meeting's place was somewhat boring and therefore not worth mentioning. It just happened. Period.

The last 100 yards to their destination, however… Pa, Ma and the older pups glanced at the chaos with a smile (Weird cackled with laughter and waved at the first other otters to appear). They had seen it before – Flower on the other hand, had not.

She glanced around with wide curious eyes and when a young pup ran past the family, closely followed by another, apparently playing tag, she had to walk backwards to try and follow them with her eyes.

The others just kept walking towards the crowd of maybe thirty otters waiting – although the waiting itself was not obvious, for they were yelling, running around, being obnoxious and pup-like. Even the grown-ups. The small family blended into the crowd, but the pups knew better than to join them in being that loud. Ma would have their heads before they could yell a battle cry.

Flower was still walking backwards and when she turned around to try and be able to see everything, she bumped into another – and bigger – otter, who turned around and growled at her.

Flower stared, she was not used to being growled at. Seeing her relatives up ahead, she sped past the larger otter and joined them once again.

"Don't stay behind," River warned her softly when she went to walk next to him. "Some of them are not friendly at all."

"I think the growling would be a clue," Flower whispered back.

"Growling?" Pa mumbled surprised.

"Someone growled at _our_ little sister?" Double said, wondering who would be foolish enough to do that.

"I'll have their heads! Who am I slapping, sis?" River growled.

Flower hurried to calm down everyone. "No, no, there's no need for that!" She gestured to the one who had growled at her. "I think he's cranky because I bumped into him."

"Or he didn't sleep well," Weird joined in.

"That's no excuse…" Trouble said quickly. "You're younger than him, Flower! That was not nice at all… If he wasn't that big I'd tell Brat to sod off and leave my little sister alone."

Flower pouted. "I'll have to tell Brat I'm sorry for bumping into him…"

"And for him not being able to sleep well?" Weird asked. "That's a little weird…"

"You are weird!" River grinned, poking his younger brother.

"Yes… yes I am! It's my name and all."

Some of the seven laughed at that, others rolled their eyes.

Flower shook her head. "Let's just forgive him, he's probably cranky for me bumping into him, so let's forget it, please?"

"And probably cranky because of that name of his," Double piped up happily. "Seriously, who'd call their pup Brat?"

"Brat's parents. Duh."

"Shuddup, Weird!"

Ma interrupted when Double launched himself at Weird, "Boys, boys, come on. Quit that. Your father's speech is about to start."

Double quickly climbed off Weird – who sat up, glanced around him and spotted Pa on top of a rock in the middle of the field where all of them stood.

"Look! Pa!"

All pups, and especially Flower, looked up and spotted their father, just as Pa called for attention from the assembled crowd.

"Fellow otters!" Pa shouted. It took a few seconds for the crowd to turn their attention to Pa, but he had it now. "Welcome to the Otter-Lympics!" A few otters cheered and some laughed at them for doing so – or maybe at the name. "This cleverly chosen name was chosen by my sister, Rush!"

"Oooh, he's gonna do a disclaimer!" Weird yelled excitedly, when Rush was given a wave from Pa to come up.

"A what?"

"Quit yelling nonsense, Weird!"

"I wanna listen to Pa's speech, guys, shut up!" Flower piped up in her tiny voice. Surprisingly they listened to her. Or maybe it was the fact that Aunt Rush had climbed up the rock and stood next to Pa, who was busy speeching.

"Now, I know you all know Rush as… Rush… Mother of the Quicksters clan!" The mentioned Quicksters clan cheered with a total of seven voices. The eight was too young to cheer, a pup not even old enough to have opened up his eyes, who was held by an adult male, probably his father.

Rush cheered back as if this happened everyday. In truth she was very surprised her brother had called her up to the rock. She glanced at him. He was in his element, holding up his paws like he was encouraging everyone to cheer, but he was speaking again, and nobody talked.

"Mate of Speedy!" Pa continued. Six voices of the Quicksters clan cheered for the one who was holding the young pup. Other otters clapped politely. "Mother of… shall I count them?"

"Yes!" the Quicksters yelled in unison. The other otters, around them, shrugged.

"Do what you do best, Dash!" one of them called up to Pa.

"What, counting? Not a good idea!" Rush interrupted, laughing loudly. The Quicksters, down below, joined in. Some of the other otters glanced at them like they were crazy – that was probably true, for Rush took over counting for her brother. "May I introduce to you, fellow otters, my first three pups, triplets, Brawn, Corkscrew and Robust!"

Brawn, obviously the oldest, waved at those around him. Corkscrew, a young female, laughed loudly like her mother just did and made a peace sign at those around her, who quickly backed off, away from the crazy female. Robust, like his name, was very… robust… and he waved at the crowd very cool-like.

"And then we have my twins, Chase and Bounce!" Rush continued, still talking to the crowd like she did this every day – which she did not.

Two younger otters stood next to their sister Corkscrew: Chase, a young male with chocolate-brown fur and hazel eyes and next to him stood his twin Bounce, a young female with the same fur and the same eyes. Chase grinned at everyone around him, while Bounce imitated her older sister by making a peace sign to the crowd around her. They didn't back off, however, and that caused Bounce to pout.

Rush grinned and continued the introduction of her pups. "Then, my youngest daughter Whip!"

A younger female who stood next to her father held up her hand like she was telling everyone she was here.

"And don't ya forget it!" she piped up in a tiny voice, obviously proud of her name. Her father, next to her, hissed a quiet 'shh' at her, but she didn't listen and started to babble on and on about why she was named Whip - "So there I am, a nameless young pup, and this very big ol' weasel comes up to me and threatens me and I'm like: 'oh yeah?' and he's like: 'yeah!' and I slap him with my tail, like it's a whip, y'know, he gets floored and I tell him this very witty one-liner -"

"WHIP!"

"Okay, okay, I get it, you wanna continue with introducing the little squirt, I'll shut my mouth. Right now. Now. No, now."

"Whip…!" Whip glanced up at the rock and mimed zipping her lips shut. "Good. The last one."

"And we're very happy with that, keep it that way!" one otter in the crowd piped up.

Rush laughed and pointed at the one otter who did that, "Good one, buddy!" The 'buddy' just looked like he'd seen a whale fly up into the sky and disappear. Rush smiled and pointed at the youngest pup, who was in his father's arms. "My youngest pup and youngest son, Toss."

Toss just laid in his father's arms and did nothing more than blow a spit bubble. Weirdly enough, this caused his siblings to cheer for him anyway.

Pa glanced at his sister and patted her on the back.

"Good… now we've had that…"

"Disclaimer!" Weird piped up happily.

Pa glanced over the edge and at his son for a second and then, he shrugged.

"Good enough. Now, enough… dis… claiming… and on to the first game of the Otter-Lympics, a race!"

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_*hugs Weird* I'm so proud! …I sound like his mother. …In a weird way, I am! Please review!_


	8. Chapter 8: The OtterLympics, part 2

**Out of the wild**

_You should have seen my face when I turned on my computer and saw I got a lot of reviews. __My mouth fell open. Seriously. I love you people! You know who you are._

**Disclaimer:** Look, I don't own the POM-characters. I want to, though. But, stalking people until they give you their characters is a crime. And the trip with the plane's a little too expensive. So, no, I don't own the POM-characters.

**Chapter 8: The Otter-Lympics: part 2**

After a short period of excitement, the otters who would race went to the start line (a line made out of rocks thrown into the water where the race would be held) and the otters who would watch went to places where all of them could see something. All of them hoped that something would not be the back of someone's head or, for the more smaller otters, someone's behind – but more preferably quite a big side of the river.

Just a small group would race – one otter of each clan that was present. For the Quicksters, it would be Rush – she was fast and agile despite her being almost-forty-in-human-age. For the Nuts (Nutmeg's clan consisted of Nutmeg; River's mate, and her brothers Chestnut and Walnut) Chestnut was going to swim as if his life depended on it.

Russet, a young female who was about 27-in-human-years, would be the representative for a group consisting of five female otters. She was the oldest and most experienced of the lot. She definitely was a better choice than the younger Luscious, who was currently batting her eyelashes at a random male close by – Ma turned Flower's head forcefully away when she saw her daughter watching that particular scene.

Trick, a young cunning female, would represent the largest group by far – the Blackguards, consisting of a total of twenty otters. Her twin brother would be close by and would be cheering her on while ruling their clan with an iron paw and coaxing all of them to yell insults at the other swimmers to 'distract' them. Yep. Not all otters were nice. Coincidentally, the otter who had growled at Flower belonged to this clan.

Shaggy, a young strapping male, would be the Loner's swimmer. His clan consisted of the old Wrinkles (an old male with the capacity to tell good stories, educate the young and with a mind that regularly went cuckoo) and the young and slightly neurotic Squeaky (a female with a mind that _always_ was cuckoo, and not in Nutmeg's cuckoo-in-the-head-but-still-handing-out-buttercup-necklaces way).

Then, Pa and Ma's clan. They'd had a hard time deciding on who would swim, but eventually decided Weird would do. Despite his bursts of weirdness, he was quick.

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"Ready?" Pa yelled at the assembled crowd and the swimmers.

"Yes!" the swimmers yelled back, except for, of course, Weird, who bounced up and down in the water and shouted quite happily:

"No!"

Pa knew better than to respond to that, ran to the shore close to the swimmers and held up a paw.

"Steady?" he yelled. The swimmers got in position, the crowd held its breath. Weird was quickly shoved in position by Aunt Rush, who stood next to him. As soon as every swimmer was ready to start swimming, Pa swung down his paw. "Go!"

They bolted – Trick immediately showed why she was named Trick by diving under and colliding with Shaggy, quite literally bumping the competition.

"Foul!" the squeaky voice of Squeaky could be heard all over the field. If you don't remember who she is, I suggest you search in the paragraphs above. Anyway, Squeaky could have saved her breath. Bumping into your competition was not considered foul play. That's the trouble with wildlife – no rules!

Shaggy was out of the race and the race went on. Trick took out Russet (after a few quick turns by Russet that left Trick baffled) and Rush (but Rush did manage to slow Trick down enough so Weird could get the upper paw on her). Weird made a few mindboggling turns and unexpected twists and came out on top after a tussle with fate.

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"Yeah! Uhhuh! I'm good! Oh yeah, I won!" Weird sang, happily dancing around. He grabbed Trick's paw – who was busy glaring at him and immediately began to struggle to get free – and wanted to start a jig with her. Trick was not having any of it, shoved Weird off her, huffed and stormed off. Weird pouted, but was not planning on staying sour forever, grabbed Flower's paw and started to dance a jig with her instead. She obliged.

The crowd yelled a bit more and then, they wanted to get to the next game: a diving competition.

======================line================

For that one, the Quicksters would be sending in Corkscrew – like her name suggested, she performed a perfect corkscrew at the tender age of six months. Winning this would be a piece of cake for her.

The Loners send in Shaggy again. They didn't have much choice. Better Shaggy than Squeaky who would be distracted at the passing of a butterfly, or Wrinkles who would stop the competition simply because his bladder was as old as the tallest tree and he needed to go potty. Or worse, it could happen he just didn't want to and used his favorite excuse of all time, and I quote: "My teeth have fallen out. I must go look for them. Don't wait up, this can take a while!" despite the fact that he had lost his teeth a few years ago and wouldn't find them until the day he died, went to heaven and had a heart-to-heart talk with all of his missing parts.

The Blackguards and the five girls didn't do anything worth mentioning – they just sent in Trick and Russet respectively – and by 'didn't do anything worth mentioning' I mean that the author is too lazy to write why they chose them – again.

For the diving competition, Pa and Ma told Double to go jump off a rock – specifically the rock that was used as a diving board.

Most of the competition Double had to deal with was pretty impressive – Corkscrew did a corkscrew dive, Shaggy just waved at all the girls present (sending them swooning) and dive bombed, Russet did a nice somersault and Trick stole the show by performing a perfect loop-the-loop, making a 360 degrees turn in the air and splashing the water up high.

Double climbed up the rock with high spirits, glanced down – and his high spirits crashed to the floor, just like his courage. He backed off and shook his head 'no' in a clear way to show anyone down there he didn't want to jump off this frickin' high rock.

Everyone who wasn't being a diver – or just hadn't seen the area from all the way up there – protested Double's choice.

"What you waiting for?"

"Jump, wimp!"

"We're here to see you dive, so _dive_!"

Double's eyes peeked over the edge, then promptly disappeared again.

"I don't wanna!" Double's voice whined.

"What's the matter, pup, 'fraid to get wet?" one otter yelled.

"It's _high_! I'm afraid of grounds!" Double yelled back.

"…Don't you mean heights, Double?" Trouble shouted to his brother.

"No! I know perfectly well what I mean! It's the grounds that kill you!"

Several foreheads were slapped with their owner's paws at that. Flower saw Trouble groaning and then turning to Weird, whispering something. Weird nodded and slipped away.

Trouble turned his attention back to Double and yelled up: "You're not jumping at the ground, you idiot!"

"What, you mean I'm aiming at the ground, but missing? That would be flying, Trouble! I'm not a bird!"

"Wanna bet?" came the unexpected voice of Weird from behind Double. Before Double could turn around, he was pushed off the rock's edge.

"AAAH!"

_SPLASH!_

Weird's face popped out from over the rock's edge and he glanced down, as if he was very surprised his brother hadn't spontaneously grown wings and flew off with some whales, a flowerpot and Wrinkles dressed up as Cupid.

"Nope! He's not a bird!"

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_Aaaah. Don't you love pushing people off cliffs – or rocks? See if you can spot the quote I put in it! Think of it like a wink towards the people who came up with it._


	9. Chapter 9: Beginning of the trouble

**Out of the wild**

_Thanks for reviewing, Anna and Monkey! __You two are my most faithful – not to mention only – reviewers! __Chapter 9! _

**Disclaimer: **What's mine is mine, but what's not mine is not mine. Not mine: POM-characters. Mine: Double, Trouble, theirfamilyand some random characters.

**Chapter 9: Beginning of the trouble**

After that Dive Of Disaster, Double was followed by spiteful comments wherever he went. That is, until Flower finally had enough and told those otters to bugger off and get a life.

Most otters weren't as impressed with the fact a _TINY_ otter told _THEM_ to do that as the fact that… well… a _TINY_ otter would tell them to do _THAT_. It was slightly hilarious to see the tiny Flower tell off all those bigger, stronger and more muscular otters, who simply did as she told because they were freaked out by her.

Lucky for her.

Apart from that, nothing important or exciting happened. At least not in plain view of the family we're following.

Let's take a look elsewhere.

Something important and interesting was happening about two miles north of the meeting, which was just a small distance if compared to the fifteen miles long lake.

That something was this:

Bulldozers moving across the ground, ramming trees down wherever they went. A boat forfeiting the peace and ruining the water's cleanness with the leaking of fuel. Men putting up the beginnings of a holiday cottage.

Now, maybe all of this is normal in the world of 'civilisation', but it certainly isn't in free nature.

And all the animals living close to the new things happening to their environment knew they could stay and have a high possibility of dying, or leave their birth grounds and find a new home.

Most animals chose to leave their nests, trees, caves and other shelters. At least one of them, an adder named Sway, who will play a bigger part later in the story, did not leave. Maybe some religions portrayed snakes as manipulative and evil beings, but Sway was not one of those.

Sway, while being hunter-of-all-things-small, temptress-of-pray and considering herself to be able to charm every living thing into her deadly fangs, was a noble adder indeed.

She knew a lot of other animals lived near the lake and saw it, as a noble adder, her duty to inform them of this new development and give them each a fair chance to save their butts. 'Sides, if she managed to save a few rats and mice now, she would have a bigger lunch later.

So, our noble huntress-of-the-grounds and saver-of-all-things-present went on her way to warn each living thing she came across – and was promptly snatched up by a hawk and carried upriver, where she managed to free herself by showing her poisonous fangs and scaring and scarring the poor bird for life.

Sway dropped out of the sky and right into the middle of the meeting of otters, effectively scaring them silly.

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_Well, what do you think? _


	10. Chapter 10: A present from the sky

**Out of the wild**

_Chapter 10!_

**Disclaimer: **"This is madness!"

"_This… is… FanFiction! So it's not something I make profit with and I don't own a thing, except this plot and some of these characters, which are NOT POM-characters."_

"But… but…"

"_It's a disclaimer! I'm not supposed to say 'I want it and I'll get it!'!__ Mostly because I won't get it anyway."_

**Chapter 10: A present from the sky – at least for some people**

"A SNAKE!" someone cried.

This panicky cry was followed by shrieks of fear and the pitter-patter of quick, scared otter-feet which were running away from the threat known as Sway the adder.

Sway followed the commotion with a lazy eye, decided she had enough and slithered around and in front of the fleeing otters, effectively cutting off their path.

She drew herself up and hissed in a mockingly scared-sounding voice: "Aaah! Otterssss!" Sensing she was doing more damage than intended, she dropped to the ground again. "Don't be ssssilly. I'm not planning to eat you – I eat mice and rats, for sssnake's sssake."

The old and wacky Wrinkles swaggered his way over to the front of the crowd and leaned down to be face-to-face with Sway.

"Yesss?" he imitated Sway's way of speech. "And if I told some fishies in the water I would never eat them because I happen to be a vegetarian, would they believe me?"

Sway stared at Wrinkles, then answered him, "Of courssse not, you sssstupid old fool. For one, fish do not speak the same language you otterssss do. Sssecond, nobody's ever heard of a vegetarian otter. Third… that's a complete different matter than thisss sssituation!"

"Oh?" Weird piped up from the back of the crowd. "How's that?"

"Because, my fellow living thingssss, I have a message for you and all other living thingssss," Sway drawled.

"…Don't eat yellow snow?"

"WEIRD!"

Sway ignored those particular comments and went straight to business, "Ssstrange two-legged creaturessss have taken over the woodssss downriver. The waters tastesss strange where they have been, fish die, several animalsss have chosen to seek new homesss because their old onesss have been destroyed. I advice all of you to grab your old, sick and young and ssseek your fortune elsewhere, or meet your deadly fate here."

"But we were born here!" the twins' father protested. "We can't just leave our home!"

The old Wrinkles turned to Pa and spat at his feet, "Does not matter you were born here if you're dead, pup!"

Several agreed with Pa, others with Wrinkles. Trick and Terror's clan quickly sided with Wrinkles, and sensing the inevitable outcome, Sway decided to leave as quick as her coils could carry her.

Sway's idea had been a right one, for just minutes later, two groups had been formed – those who wanted to stay, and those who wanted to leave.

Not knowing what to do, Pa had quickly decided to get all of his family members together and leave the meeting while he could still walk with all four limbs attached to his body.

Unsurprisingly, others followed their example and hurried home.

Double, Trouble, Flower and Weird didn't know what to make of this, but they knew they would need to keep up with their parents and other family members.

Unfortunately for them, something happened back at the meeting. Something that would tip the balance completely. What is was? I'll tell you next chapter.

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_Le gasp! A cliffhanger! I'm evil. *cackles*_


	11. Chapter 11: Meanwhile, at the meeting

**Out of the wild**

_Chapter 11!_

**Disclaimer: **Hey, look! Is it a plane, is it a bird? No! It is… a disclaimer! I don't own the Penguins of Madagascar.

**Chapter 11: Meanwhile, at the meeting**

Trick was pacing up and down while Terror sat in the shadow of a large tree. Several members of their clan surrounded them.

Trick sighed, kept pacing up and down – and had to step over several younglings – then turned, marched her way over to her twin brother and kicked him.

"Get up, you lazy fur ball!" she snarled. Terror looked up in confusion, but clambered to his feet anyway.

"What is it, sis?" he asked in his masculine voice. Trick could tell her brother was confused just by the way his voice sounded.

"You know perfectly well what it is, Terror," she told him impatiently.

"Eh, no. No I don't."

Trick bared her teeth – why did she have to have such a stupid brother? Fine, he was strong, but Trick had clearly gotten all brain cells of their gene pool.

Trick sighed and knew she had to repeat her entire plan again.

"Right," she began. "This opportunity is perfect, Terror. A little confusion, a little terror, a little fear… and Dash 'the fearful leader' ran for it." She checked to see if her brother was listening. Terror was glancing at her, yes, but… he was drooling. A clear hint that he wasn't understanding a thing she said. She rolled her eyes, poked her brother, who shook himself and listened. Trick repeated the last part and went on. "We have the numbers. The only thing we need now is… someone to sell it to other otters."

Her brother didn't say anything and just stared at Trick. Trick poked him again.

"Huh? Oh!" Terror came back to life. Figuratively. "Eh… and… who is this seller?"

"Wrinkles of course!" Trick said simply.

"Ah! Good plan, I like this plan! " Terror smiled. "Even though I don't understand it, I still like it!"

"Yeah. That's why I am the one making the plans."

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Trick and Terror stood in front of a cave.

"So, let's go through this again," Trick said, trying to be patient with her brother. "What is our plan?"

"Eh, we go into Wrinkles' cave, kick him out and ask him nicely if he wants to join us!" said Terror happily. Thinking he remembered it right this time, he grinned down at his sister.

It was the fifth time they went over the plan, and Terror still didn't get it right.

Trick sighed and wanted to slam her head into a tree. She didn't and told the plan again.

"No, Terror! We go into his cave, wake him up nicely and THEN con him into thinking he wants to help us! Get it?"

Terror's grin disappeared and he nodded.

"Good," Trick said, also nodding. "Follow me." And she walked into the cave, closely followed by Terror.

They stopped and had to let their eyes get used to the darkness in the cave. Then, they continued. Trick managed to find Wrinkles after a little searching and walked up to him. Terror followed her.

Trick leaned over the old Wrinkles, who was fast asleep – in the middle of the day – and gently poked him.

"Wrinkles? Wakey-wakey," she told him gently. Wrinkles groaned and turned to his other side, completely _not_ wakey-wakey-ing. Trick tried again, but received the same treatment.

She was about to try again, when Terror had enough, walked up to his sister and the old Wrinkles, and promptly snatched poor old Wrinkles up by the scruff. _That_ did wake him up.

"What the -" Wrinkles mumbled, discovering he had been woken up rather harshly and was currently held about an inch off the floor by his scruff. "Is it morning already?"

Trick could only stare. Then, she dashed forward and made Terror put the old otter down. Then she patted Wrinkles' fur back into place, "I'm so sorry, he didn't mean that – YOU DIDN'T, RIGHT?" she snarled towards her brother.

"Eh?"

"He didn't," she said, turning back to Wrinkles. "And it's been morning already, it's still the same day."

"Really?" asked Wrinkles. "What is it with those days these days…"

Trick shrugged her slight confusion over this off her and continued, "Eh, yes. Now, I wanted to talk to you about something… Is that alright?"

"You just woke me up, I don't think I have a choice," Wrinkles drawled.

'_Nope, you don't_,' was a little tactless, Trick decided, so she just continued talking, explaining she wanted him to be their leader – or conning him into thinking he wanted to be an alpha male. She went on and on, and concluded with, "So, we need an experienced otter to lead us to a new home and get rid of the _old_ alpha male." She glanced at Wrinkles. "Get what I mean?"

The old Wrinkles just blinked and put up his paw like he was in class. Confused, Trick nodded at him to speak.

Wrinkles put down his paw.

"But I didn't get the chance to study!" he started to protest, looking like a student who just received a C minus on his last test when he wanted an A plus. "How am I supposed to know this?"

Needless to say, Trick wished she _had_ slammed her head into a tree by the time she and Terror got out of the cave and went back to their clan.

Having arrived, Trick leaned against a tree and let herself slide down. She groaned. Terror, now concerned, walked up to her and asked what was wrong.

Trick looked up.

"Wrinkles is stupid, easy to con, but unfortunately he's also stark raving mad," she complained.

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_Now don't be angry at Trick and Terror for being evil! I'm sure they have a very good reason for this. And don't you just love that they're such complicated characters?  
>And Wrinkles! I love that old coot! <em>_  
>What do you think?<em>


	12. Chapter 12: Decisions, decisions

**Out of the wild**

_Chapter 12!_

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the Penguins of Madagascar.

**Chapter 12: Decisions, decisions…**

"C'mon, boys!" Pa yelled over his shoulder. "Keep up back there!"

Flower didn't have to worry about keeping up, because she was tugged along by her father, but the twins and Weird did not have that kind of help. Weird and Double didn't seem to have any problems keeping up, but Trouble was falling behind.

And Double noticed. His eyes darted between his twin brother and their family, who were hurrying home. He made a decision in a split second and turned around, running towards his brother.

Trouble, wheezing and exhausted, saw his brother coming towards him, felt a wave of thankful feelings towards Double and then tumbled to the ground.

"Oi, you okay?" Double asked, finally reaching Trouble and poking him with his foot.

Unbeknownst to them, their family disappeared from sight.

Trouble groaned, at the moment not particularly caring about the absence of their family, and looked up, "Do I look like I'm okay?"

"Ehm, no. Not exactly, no," Double mumbled. "You look a little like Wrinkles with breathing problems."

"Oh, thank you, I feel so much better now," Trouble declared sarcastically, still wheezing a little.

"No need to be hurtful," Double sniffed. "Come on. Let's get you on your feet." Double bend down, wrapped an arm around his brother's waist and hoisted him to his feet. "Oomph! Okay, I think I misjudged your weight a little!" he grunted, almost collapsing.

"Just be thankful I'm not a girl, or you'd be slapped to the next century for that," Trouble said dryly. "Thanks for helping me along, Double."

"That's where brothers are for," Double groaned, still having problems with keeping his balance and holding both of them upright. "Let's just get home – really calm-like – okay?"

"Yeah," Trouble said. "But eh, I can walk on my own now, you know."

"Oh. Right. Okay," Double coughed, letting his brother stand on his own two feet and then walking home – very slowly, so Trouble could keep up with his pathetic 'fit' state.

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But, when they came home after a long walk the next morning, a surprise awaited them.

"…Where's the burrow?" Double said, staring at the empty space in front of them with a gob smacked expression on his face.

Trouble, who had a similar expression on his face, added, "More importantly, where are Pa, Ma, River, Flower and Weird?"

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_*cackle* Go on, people! Guess what happened! I'll tell you next chapter!_


	13. Chapter 13: What happened at the burrow?

**Out of the wild**

_Chapter 13! _

**Disclaimer:** _Dear Santa, I'd like the POM-characters for Christmas. Maybe it's too much too ask, because they don't belong to me and I only like borrowing them and making them do stupid things in some later chapters. But please, can I have them?  
><em>…  
><strong>Dear Lisette, this is Santa. I tried to get the POM-characters for you, but the copyright law is being terribly right, so I can't. I hope you're happy with these plush toys instead.<strong>

_So, no, I don't own the POM-characters.__ And I know, it's April when I posted this!_

**Chapter 13: What happened at the burrow?**

Most of you must have been wondering what happened, so we'll go back in time and follow a different path.

Or, eh, follow someone else. Think of it like a video tape that's rewound and stopped at a certain point.

Remember last chapter, where Double turned back and joined his brother? That's where we'll jump in.

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Nobody noticed Double turning and going back; they were too busy hurrying home. That's the problem with being too focused on something – you lose sight of everything else.

Flower, who was being tugged along by her father, was curious.

"Daddy – dad, why do we have to hurry like this?" she asked, with small little pauses in between for some much-needed breaths.

Pa looked down at his only daughter while running and seemed to hesitate. "It's getting dark soon," he told her after some silence.

Flower stared, but accepted her father's explanation. She was a little busy with running to question her father's answer.

They ran on until after dark. Then they reached their burrow – or what was left of it.

"No," Pa whispered, letting his daughter's paw go and sinking to his knees. He stared at the bunch of wood, rock, and dead fishes that had once been in their tiny pond.

Weird broke the terrible moment with a complete inappropriate sense of timing. He skipped up to his father and tugged on his paw.

"Dad, where's the burrow?"

"Gone," Pa whispered after a moment.

A pause. Then: "Why's the burrow gone?"

His father didn't answer him. Someone else did.

"Ssssome two-legged creatures came," a voice said. "Your burrow didn't ssstand a chance."

Pa, along with the others, turned and saw none other than Sway the adder. The teal scales on her back and even her slit black eyes seemed to have lost their sparkle with the loss of another home.

Weird did not have those worries. He had other worries. He stumbled backwards, away from the adder.

"Okay, what are you, a stalker?" he cried. He had a fair point. But that boy's _got_ some priorities!

"I jussst have a good ssssense of timing!" Sway protested, moving her coils to hide her face behind them. "But it doessss not matter. Your home issss gone." Her eyes darted over the otters present. "And so are your twinssss, it seemssss."

"WHAT?" Ma panicked. "My boys!"

"Forget your boysss," Sway stated calmly. "The two-legged creaturessss will come back… and when they find you here waiting for your boysss, they will perforate you with boom-sticks."

"But -"

"If you stay here, you _and_ your twinsss will be dead before the next sunrise!" Sway interrupted. She nodded at Flower and Weird. "Save the pupssss you still have. You can consssider your twin boysss gone."

She didn't say anything for a moment, and then slithered away.

Silence. Then: "What do we do now?"

"I don't wanna go, Ma!" Flower wailed. "What about Double and Trouble?"

"You heard the adder! She said they were gone…" Pa mumbled. "My twin boys… gone…"

"They can't be gone! We haven't seen them here yet! Let's wait for them!" Weird joined his sister's opinion.

"Double and Trouble are dead!" Pa snarled. Still shocked by the disappearance of their burrow, he was more sensitive than ever.

Flower and Weird started protesting.

"They're not -"

"A big load of rubbish -"

A sound in the distance interrupted them and the small clan's ears perked up to listen to it.

_Vvvvroooom… _

"What is that?" asked River, holding his head sideways. His answer came speeding at them. A big… something… seemingly bouncing over the waves. The sound became louder until it was a roar and the five otters dove for cover, fur bristling in fear.

Flower was the first to poke her head above the shrub they were hiding in and peeked out.

"It's gone!" she told the others. They climbed out.

"What was that?" Ma whispered.

"Whatever it was, it was dangerous," Pa answered. He glanced in the direction the thing had disappeared. "It appears that the adder was right. I think I saw a two-legger in that… thing. They're coming back." The decision was made in a spit second. "We're going, and that's that."

And they did go. But Flower and Weird couldn't help looking back.

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_Yes, Sway is my plothole jumper. Thank you, Sway! If she wasn't here to tell Double and Trouble's family that she thought the boys were dead, I wouldn't have the plot I needed. Hooray for Sway!__ 'Sides, she really believed the twins are dead. I mean, what would you believe if strange creatures were spotted close to your home and you notice some kids are absent? Eaten! Or perforated with boom-sticks, in this case. So please, don't be angry at Sway. She was honestly trying to help and did what was best by her._


	14. Chapter 14: With two, but very alone

**Out of the wild**

**Disclaimer: **POM is not mine. The plot of this Fanfiction, Double, Trouble, their family and some random characters along the way _are_ mine.

_Chapter 14!__ Finally! _

**Chapter 14: With two, but very alone**

"They're gone!" Double panicked, running around in panicky circles before he was stopped by Trouble's paw.

"Don't panic!" Trouble said, trying to calm down his brother. "We… we just have to follow their tracks."

Double looked up, hopeful.

"Really? Do you know how to track, Trouble? Because I don't. I didn't pay attention in the lesson."

Trouble's calming expression disappeared and was replaced by an open-mouthed one.

"Oh. So none of us can read tracks," he squeaked. "I didn't think I ever needed that skill…"

"Well, apparently we were both wrong. Can we panic now?"

Trouble groaned, "No! The last thing we need to do is panic!"

"I'm panicking, I can't help it!" Double yelped.

"Panicking will not help us at all," Trouble said, patting his brother on the shoulder. He tried to get his wits together, but Double mucked it up completely by yelling the following sentence.

"I think panicking is very stress-relieving!"

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**Meanwhile, with Pa, Ma, River, Flower and Weird.**

"So, where are we going exactly?" Flower piped up while she was being tugged along by her father. "You know. _After_ we've given up on our _brothers_ and your _sons_!"

Pa stopped walking and Flower bumped into him. He turned around, looking quite angry. Flower, who didn't expect that, wrenched her paw away from her father's and jumped back, bumping into Weird, who caught her by the shoulders and kept her steady.

Pa advanced on his daughter, looking quite menacing and snarled, "I'll tell you again, girl! They – are – dead! We are following our path so we can live and I don't need my own daughter to tell me I'm a coward! Understand?" He stopped in front of Flower and leaned down to yell the last word into her face.

Flower blinked, but stood her ground. Mostly because she was held in place by Weird, but also because she had quite a lot of courage for such a small otter. She also stepped forward, almost stepping on her father's toes. Pa, now surprised, took a step back.

"Listen to me, daddy!" she told him forcefully. "We're a family! We're not supposed to just assume someone of our family is dead without checking or waiting for them! We were cowards to just turn tails and run off like we did! I say we go back now!"

Pa blinked, not used to being told off by a young pup. River was the only one to respond.

"Flower, I don't think there _is_ anything to go back to." Flower started to protest, but River held up a paw to interrupt her. "No, look, Flower. When we went, one of those two-leggers came by. I think that as soon as the sun is above those trees over there," he gestured at some trees to their right. "A lot of two-leggers will be back and close to the burrow. If we go back now, we'll walk into them."

"Are you saying we should go on without even the tiniest bit of hope Double and Trouble are alive?" a dumbstruck Flower asked.

"We'll have to. We can go to Nutmeg's shelter. They can go with us that way. Give up on Double and Trouble, Flower…"

After a lot of protesting and a little crying, they went on their way to Nutmeg's clan anyway.

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**With Trouble and Weird**

"Double. Double, please let go of me. You know I'm not that strong. Carrying you like a baby will end in tears for both of us," Trouble mumbled, currently busy holding Double who was holding onto his twin brother like his life depended on it.

"No," Double mumbled into his brother's shoulder.

"Okay, but I warned you."

And Trouble toppled over to the ground.

"Gah!" Double yelped, immediately letting go when his brother hit the ground and jumping to his feet. "Why'd you _do_ that?"

"I told you I wasn't strong!" Trouble mumbled while he climbed to his feet again. "So please, don't jump into my arms like that again!" He dusted himself off, but paused when he heard something. His ears perked up. "Do you hear something?" he whispered.

Double glanced at his brother like he wanted to push him off a cliff, but thought better of it and also perked up his ears.

"Ehm… do you mean that weird, thundering noise?" he mumbled.

"Yes. Where's it coming from?"

Double pointed. Both of them turned in that direction, screamed bloody murder and dove out of the way of a bulldozer that came crashing though the bushes and drove on, making trees crash down and ground be thrown this way and that.

"What was _that_?" Trouble squeaked, popping out of a pile of leaves and twigs.

"Let's not stay to find out!" Double said in a high panicky voice, after which he jumped out of his own pile of leaves and twigs and started to jog into the opposite direction of where the bulldozer was headed. Trouble took one last glance at the remains of their burrow, then followed his brother when he heard another thunderous roar of the bulldozer, making his fur stand on end and his feet move fast.

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_End of chapter!__I had a little trouble with Flower's speech… I don't really know how to SHOW she is a growing youngling, but also quick-witted and that she DOES care about her brothers, enough to go against her father…_

_Tell me what you think._


	15. Chapter 15: Kind of a filler chappie

**Out ****of the wild**

**Disclaimer:**_ POM is not mine. Nope. But this BE-AU-TI-FUL laptop IS! Hahaha! Be jealous!_

_I haven't updated in longer than a month. Shame… on… me. But I was busy not being lazy. I hate not being lazy… But, here is a chapter to make up for it! It is a filler, with not a lot of stuff happening. Just to show you guys I'm not dead. Here it is!_

**Chapter 15: Kind-of a filler chappie**

At the crack of dawn, two young otter boys were up and about already, and moving away from the place that had once been their home.

It was drizzling, and while the little drops of water falling down from the sky served to be good for plant life, Double and Trouble weren't happy with the little drops. This kind of rain could soak your fur within a few hours, especially if you were out and about. Something the twins experienced first-hand. Or first-paw, in this case.

"I'm cold, I'm wet and I'm hungry," Double complained, walking alongside his brother and trying to conserve the little warmth he had by crossing his arms in front of his chest.

Trouble groaned, "Don't remind me! Let's just… think of something else entirely. Like… the colour of that flower over there. Beautiful, isn't it?"

"I'm not particularly interested in the prettiness of things at the moment, Trouble," Double drawled. "'Sides… you can't eat that flower. We'd probably die. Remember what mom told us? 'The prettier it looks, the more likely it is to kill you'."

"Oh, yeah, right. And that thing's pretty. But, Double," Trouble mumbled, glancing beside him at his brother. "Don't you ever wonder what happens after you die?"

Double shrugged, feeling colder with each passing second. "No," he deadpanned. "I'm too busy wondering about my next meal. And when I'll feel warm once more."

Trouble sighed and didn't respond. Neither of them talked for the remainder of their stroll through the rain.

They managed to find shelter and huddled together to get warm, but huddling together if you're just with two is kind of difficult and not as effective as huddling with more than two.

=====line=====

"Do you think they're okay?" a young-sounding voice whispered.

"I don't know," another voice responded. A curious paw prodded Double's side. The young male groaned and rolled over, waving his paw as if swatting away a fly.

The young-sounding voice giggled, but was quickly silenced by the other, older sounding, voice.

"Shh, Runt! We don't know their intentions!"

As if on cue, a flash of lightning struck and the shelter was lightened up for a few seconds, long enough to make out four forms. The first two, laying on the ground, were our twins. The other two were two weasels, on appearing to be older than the other. The flash died away.

Thunder struck.

"AAH!" Double yelled, bolting upright and clashing heads with the younger of the two weasels. He groaned, looked up, saw the two weasels… and yelled again. "AAAAAH!"

The young weasel yelled right back, at the same volume. "AAAAAH!"

"What the -" Trouble mumbled, waking and sitting up to stare around him in confusion, while the two idiots (also known as Double and the youngest weasel Runt) screamed like a couple of maniacs.

The older weasel quickly covered both of the screaming mouths with her paws. "Quit the screaming!" she hissed. The two boys looked up at her in shock. The third stared. "Now, if I remove my paws, will you be quiet?" Both the younger weasel and Double nodded. She removed her paws. The boys kept quiet. "Right. Please tell me what you two otters are doing in my younger brother's and my shelter."

Double and Trouble shared a glance and decided that Trouble would speak.

"It was raining," he started. "And we were cold, so we needed shelter. This was the best we could find."

The youngest weasel and the older shared a glance.

"Right," said the oldest weasel. "Ehm, I guess you can stay here until morning. My name is Fern and this is my younger brother Runt." She gestured at the younger weasel, who grinned and waved, squeaking out a 'Hiiii!'.

"Thank you," Trouble mumbled, nodding his thanks at the two weasels. Double just stared a little longer, then laid down and fell asleep right there.

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**Meanwhile, somewhere else**

It was in the middle of the night and something sounded like it was dying.

"It's so daaaaaaaark! And we won't stop walking! No, n-n-no!"

"Weird! Stop singing!"

Okay, it was Weird's singing, which technically sounds about the same. Five shadows moved along the ground, their owners not far off.

"Dad, why do we have to walk this far?" Flower mumbled, trudging along behind her family.

Their father didn't even turn around. "We've got to get to the nuts' shelter, that's why. Knowing Walnut, Chestnut and Nutmeg they'll still be around now, but they won't stay much longer, I think… That's why we've got to hurry! Now move your feet!"

They moved their feet.

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_Aaaand that's it. Not a lot, I know. I hope I'll be able to write more the next chapter… Review and make me happy!_


	16. Chapter 16: Closer!

**Out of the wild**

**Disclaimer:** POM is not mine, however much I want to own it.

_Chapter 16. We're finally moving closer to meeting the POM-characters and seeing if I can write them in-character! _

**Chapter 16: Starting to move closer**

Something woke up our boys way too early and way too hostile.

"Okay, it's morning – _now get out!_" the oldest weasel Fern shouted, grabbing the twins by the scruff and throwing them out of the cave.

"Ow!" Double whined, from where he had landed right on top of his brother.

"Ouch!" Trouble grunted. He shoved Double off him and pointed at Fern. "Hey! That's not nice at all!"

"I don't care!" Fern shouted back. She grabbed her younger brother to prevent him from running to the twins' aid and shook her fist. "Begone with you!"

The boys grumbled, mumbled about how unfair it was and how weird they thought Fern was, but went anyway.

============line============

"That was not nice," Trouble grumbled.

"No," Double responded with little interest.

"Totally out of order."

"You're totally right," Double said, not even looking at his twin.

Trouble continued complaining about the way they were treated and Double kept responding like that – like he didn't even listen, which he, truthfully, didn't. Trouble noticed this after a while, seemed shocked for a moment, and then he grinned.

"I'm going to push you into the mud, that alright with you?" he said cheerfully. Double, who hadn't been listening, responded in the affirmative. "Okay!"

_Splash!_

"Hey! Why did you _do_ that!"

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"I'm disliking you right now," a very muddy Double grumbled while glaring at his brother.

"Oh, thanks," Trouble responded dryly. "When you're done disliking me be sure to tell me, okay? We can't be disliking each other while we only have each other. That would be kind of sad."

Due to pointless arguing, the next few paragraphs went missing (also known as… accidentally-on-purpose been lost in the imagination and/or the file). This message will NOT be destroyed – why? Because this is still part of the story, it's just a little paragraph of funny and witty comments by the writer. So there!

==========================line=================

"Where are we?"

Trouble glared over his shoulder at his brother, who had been the one to ask that question – for about the fifth time.

"A few feet further than the last time you asked that," Trouble grumbled. Well, wouldn't you be annoyed if _your_ brother kept repeating the same stupid question over and over again? Yes, you would. So give the boy some credit.

Double, being wise for once, wisely kept his mouth shut. For approximately… five hours. That's a new record for him, you understand, so let's be proud of him, while we let Double say his… whatever he wants to say.

"Hey, Trouble…" Double said. "Are you sure we went in the right direction?"

Trouble, who had been appreciating the silence, glanced at his brother and nodded, "Yes."

"You sure? We were headed _away_ from those big tree-crushing things?"

"Yes," Trouble said. Then he noticed that Double wasn't looking at _him_, glanced behind him, where his brother was looking, and understood that he couldn't appreciate the silence at all.

Because, right there, stood a fine example of one of those big tree-crushers. Luckily it wasn't noisily tearing down trees and it wasn't moving forward, but Double and Trouble nonetheless jumped in a bush, their fur bristling.

Their heads poked out and they looked at the machine.

"See?" Double whimpered. "We headed the wrong way! Totally the wrong way!" He ducked down, eyes just peeking out above the bush.

"Come on," Trouble whispered. "We have to get out of –"

He was cut off by a shrill voice, different that anything they had heard before in their entire life: "DADDY!" Before either of them could understand what happened, a young human girl bounded into the open, followed by a man that was apparently her father. Double and Trouble ducked down.

The man, fat and obviously wearing a toupee, stopped after a few steps and crossed his arms.

"What did you want, Laura?" he grumbled. The girl didn't even notice his tone, bounced up to a tree and pointed up. The man strode closer to his daughter and glanced upwards. A small bird was sitting there. "A bird," he stated calmly. If the man had been of a more nature-knowing state of mind, he would have known it was a robin, but, alas, he wasn't. He risked a glance at his daughter. "What's a darn bird doing in _my_ building site for _my_ recreational lake?"

The girl, Laura, finally seemed to notice her father's hostile stance towards the bird. For a second she didn't seem to know what to do, and then she smiled widely at the man.

"It's so cute!" she chirped, sure that this would have a heart-warming effect on the man. Only it didn't.

"So?" the man grumbled. "Go play, Laura. Daddy is busy." He waved a hand at the girl, and disappeared through a few branches, leaving the tree and the robin at the girl's mercy.

The girl glanced up at the robin.

"You heard my daddy!" she called up to the poor bird. "Come down to play, birdie!" The birdie didn't move a muscle except for some eyeball rolling. "C'mon, birdie! Let's play hide and seek – or horsy! You're the horsy!"

Trouble and Double could hear a very puzzled voice asking, "What's a horsy?" before the girl continued her demands to play.

"Come, birdie! Oh, I can't keep calling you birdie, can I?" the girl called up to the robin. "I'll call you… Sparrow! You're a sparrow, aren't you?"

The robin moved on it's branch and seemed to puff up, "I'm not! I'm a respectable _robin_! And the name's _Tweed_!"

The girl only giggled at the pretty bird sounds she could hear, and plopped down underneath the tree so she could hear it better.

"Sing for me, birdie Sparrow!" she ordered, smiling widely.

"Go away, you little twiggy two-legged creature!"

"Oh, your singing is fantastic!" the girl gushed.

Tweed the robin groaned. "Enough is enough," he decided, spread his wings, jumped off the branch and flew off.

The girl tried to follow and managed to trip over a bush – exactly the bush Double and Trouble were hiding in. Laura fell, taking a large portion of the bush down with her, and uncovered the otter twins.

Screwing up her mouth to cry, Laura saw them right in front of her. For a moment, everything seemed to freeze.

Laura's mouth immediately unscrewed after time set in again and reached two very quick hands to the two paralyzed brothers, who weren't quick enough to escape, and ended up in the young girl's grasp. Laura inspected her catch curiously and seemed to make up her mind.

"Daddy!" she called.

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_I said closer, not actually… being there. I hope I can write the POM-characters in chapter 17 or 18. So, tell me what you think. Would my fanfic make for a good story by the fire… or __**in**__ the fire? Tell me._


	17. Chapter 17: Hop to it!

**Out of the wild**

**Disclaimer:** The POM-characters are not mine. Double and Trouble, their family, and anyone you don't recognize _are_.

_Just one review (thanks, Monkey!), but I'll update now. Behold! Chapter 17!_

**Chapter 17: Hop to it, now, boys!**

"Let us go or we'll… we'll bite!" Double tried to threaten, but the threat wasn't that threatening because he was being held up in the air by the scruff, just like his brother, and dangling rather pitifully from a young girl's grip too.

Trouble groaned.

The girl, not being able to understand otter-ish language, just held on tighter and made a happy sound when her father appeared, "Daddy! Daddy, look what I've got!"

She held up her catch. Her father, clueless as to why his daughter had called him yet again, glanced at what she held.

A kind of loud and girlish scream left his mouth before he ran up to his daughter and tried to tear our boys out of Laura's grasp.

Laura sidestepped him and stared at him like he had tried to tear two young kitty cats out of her hands to drown them.

Her father noticed this, stopped, and tried the diplomatic way.

"Honey," he started, in an, ironically, honey-sweet voice. "Why are you holding two… sickening… whatever they are?" _Very_ diplomatic, mister father-of-Laura!

"'Cuz they're cute," Laura said, completely sure of herself. (Politicians can take an example on that one, take it from me.)

Double glanced at his brother and said, puzzled, "We're cute?"

Trouble shrugged.

Laura's father made a disgusted sound – he probably didn't think the twins were cute at all. "Laura, those two pests can make you sick."

"Yeah – sick with love!" Laura gushed happily, hugging poor Double and Trouble to her chest.

Laura's father growled. He didn't mean that! "No, no, they're probably _filled_ to the _brim_ with sickness and diseases and… ugh…" He gagged.

Laura glanced up at her father and gasped, "What? Are my Scruffy and Mr. Nomnom _ill_?"

("_What_ did she call us?" Double squeaked out in shock.)

Her father hesitated, "Eh… yes. Yeah, they probably are."

The girl glanced down at the two otter boys – and threw herself at her father, throwing her arms around his middle (miraculously managing to hold on to Double and Trouble _and_ to get her tiny arms all the way around her father's fat belly) and started blubbering.

Laura's father hesitantly started to pat her on the head, "Eh, calm down, dear… They'll probably not suffer for long…" Laura started to blubber harder and her father seemed to panic. And panicking people tend to overthrow the balance of things. "C-calm down, sweetums!" he cried. "I'll – I'll get a doctor for them! And they can live in a zoo, yes? They'll be happy and you can visit them every day! Just… just stop crying, please…"

Laura stopped crying.

"Every day?" she asked, and the traces of any tears suddenly seemed to disappear.

================line============

And so it happened that one minute, Double and Trouble were at the edge of their lake, and the next they were in a box, in a truck, on the way to a zoo.

Both of them in the _same_ box too. What idiot had decided this, would forever be shrouded in mystery.

But the fact that one box for two otters was too small, wouldn't be a mystery at all.

"Ow! That was my tail!" Double shouted.

"And that was my eye! Get your claw out of my eye and I'll get my foot off your tail, okay?" Trouble shouted back – and then both of them screamed, because the driver suddenly decided to turn left, and both of the brothers were send careening into the opposite side of their box.

===================line=====================

Things like that continued to happen. The driver would turn an unexpected corner and send both of the otter boys into the opposite wall. After a while of this they just gave up and stayed down on the floor instead of scrambling to their feet just to be thrown on their back again.

The truck turned a corner – the brothers just skidded across the floor to the opposite wall like two furry rugs – and stopped. Double and Trouble stayed down in case the truck would speed up again, like it had done before – if they had known of traffic lights, then this would be obvious, but they didn't, so, of course, the first time that happened… let's just say they became very acquainted with the opposite wall and the floor.

Anyway, they stayed down. The truck didn't move.

Silence. Double and Trouble listened – the only thing they could do.

A door opened and slammed to a close. Voices. One male, the other female – human voices. They knew this because of the weird accent of the language and the odd, breathy sounds they made while talking.

"Mr. Twist brought them in, you say?" said the female voice. It sounded like the owner of the voice was the equivalent of a bear which was woken up in the middle of its hibernation.

"Yes, Alice," said the male voice. _His_ voice sounded like he slept too long and was more than a little sleepy. "He called to inform us to arrange for a doctor… and to keep his daughter busy when she comes to visit."

"Uh," the female voice said, obviously not interested. "He can tell us so much. But we're stuck with the problems – where will we put them?"

"Well, obviously in the -"

The female voice interrupted snappishly, "It was a rhetorical question!" A sigh. "But you're right. We'll have to put them with the other otter. As if we haven't enough animals already…"

"Not to mention too few space," the man's voice said, full of sympathy.

"Uh," the woman called Alice commented, uninterested. "A few good shoves and they'll fit."

Footsteps. Fading voices. Silence.

Double and Trouble climbed to their feet and stared at each other. More silence.

A thud.

Double and Trouble glanced away from each other and to a hole in the box. The hole had been there before – only now there was a light shining through. A very _light_ light. Very fire-y. In fact, if they looked closely, they could see flames.

_Flames?_

The boys glanced at each other in horror and took the one step that separated them from the tiny hole in the box and looked through.

It were flames alright. Whooshing out of some sort of flame thrower. How they knew that? Well, the device threw flames. Hence the name flame thrower.

Holding it was a black-and-white blur – they couldn't see it very well with the flames obscuring their sight. Next to this black-and-white blur, there were three other black-and-white blurs. The one with the flat head – Double and Trouble couldn't see that, but in the sense of being descriptive, the blurs will be described – waved a black flipper and the black-and-white blur with the flame thrower made a crowbar appear, handed the flame thrower to a apparently very reluctant smaller black-and-white blur, and stepped closer to Double and Trouble's box.

Something slammed in the box's wood – Double and Trouble cried out in shock and jumped back – and the crowbar (that was the something) was skillfully put to use to break apart the twins' box.

Only the door fell, in a more subtle and realistic way (instead of collapsing the whole box).

The four black-and-white blurs crowded around the doorway. The otter boys noticed the blurs were actually black-and-white birds, who waddled on their two orange, webbed feet and looked like they were wearing smokings – or like they stole a skunk's fur (the colour).

The black-and-white bird with the flat and kind of square-ish head put his flippers to his… what might have been 'hips' if they only existed, and demanded, "Who are you?"

Double and Trouble, confused as they were, only responded with the highly intelligent response (_feel_ the sarcasm): "Huh?"

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_Well, Skipper just got one line (the flathead, of course), but the penguins are in it! How did I do? Tell me!_


	18. Chapter 18: The first few minutes

**Out of the wild**

**Disclaimer: **the POM-characters are not mine. If they were, I would be rich, which I'm not. Anyone you don't recognize, though, _is _mine_._

_Right. Chapter 18. I see I got a few reviews (thank you, Monkey and hardrocker). Also, someone faved my story! I love that person! Wait, wait, I can see that person's name! Thanks, person. You know who you are. _

_Anyway, I tried to predict how everyone would react. I hope I did well…_

**Chapter 18: The first few minutes**

The penguins gazed at the otter twins as if they were trying to win a battle of wits. The otter twins were gazing at the penguins like they were trying to be less confused.

Silence. More gazing. The gazing turned into staring. Even more silence. The air seemed to hum with tension. The staring turned into glaring – well, Skipper, Kowalski and Rico were glaring. Private didn't seem to know how to glare and the twins were too confused to glare.

Finally, after what seemed like _hours,_ Trouble decided to say something. He cleared his throat. Three pairs of eyes were immediately focused on him. The fourth was a little later and the fifth was Double, so he didn't count.

Trouble swallowed and paused – then he spoke. "Eh…"

"Who are you?" the flat-headed penguin (Skipper) interrupted. "Who are you working for? _What is the square root of seven?_" ((I know, a little OOC. But it's so funny to make him say that!))

"What?" a lot of people chorused.

"That was unexpected," Double whispered.

"Shut up!" Skipper snapped. "I'm asking the questions. Never mind that last question. Anyway, let's take these two to the HQ!"

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"For the last time, we are _not _spies," said Trouble exasperated.

"I say you are," Skipper said forcibly.

"Oh? Let's pretend you are right, eh?" said Double, calmer than Trouble. Unexpectedly. "Then _why_ did you bring us into your home?"

Silence. Then…

"I _told_ you this didn't seem like a good idea," Kowalski whispered.

Skipper shrugged. "It happened. Besides, I don't think they'll tell anyone about this." If he could have, he would have snapped his fingers at Rico, but, of course, he didn't have fingers. So he just made a quick movement with his flipper at him.

Rico cackled and regurgitated – Double and Trouble watched, being very disturbed – a hammer.

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Fate decided to be funny and made someone think they should visit the penguins while the birds tried to make sure that no one would babble about the HQ's location – and so forth.

Anyway, by visiting we mean 'barging in', 'cause that's exactly what the person did – and don't ya forget it.

The door with the fish on it swung open and in stepped Marlene, with a happy smile and a cheerful greeting of: "Hey guys!" She stopped in her tracks. And stared in open-mouthed awe – and possibly a little bit of surprise, horror, and a little bit of confusion too.

Skipper glanced aside – and motioned for Rico to put down his hammer.

_BANG!_

"Ow!"

"I meant gently!" Skipper barked at Rico, who giggled innocently and put his flippers behind his back. Skipper sighed, probably wondered how Rico managed to look so innocent after dropping a hammer onto _Double's foot_, and turned to Marlene. "Can it, Marlene? We're busy."

Marlene simply blinked and pointed a questioning finger towards the (now tied-up) otter twins while having a very amusing gob smacked expression on her face. "What are you guys doing?" she asked, nonplussed.

"Classified," was the immediate answer.

Silence.

Then…

"We're being told not to say anything about this place's location with the apparently very effective scare-with-hammer method!" Double blurted.

More silence.

"…Doesn't he know what classified means?" Private whispered.

"Should I?" mumbled Double. "Hmm."

"Double," Trouble groaned. "Don't make it worse. They already tried to flatten your foot with that hammer, so please, please… Shut up for about a second?"

Marlene put her hands to her hips – existent hips! Go girl! – and glared at Skipper."So _that's_ why you guys wanted to borrow my hammer!"

Private shuffled with his feet and stared at the ground. Rico shrugged. Kowalski scribbled something on his clipboard. Skipper lifted his head and glared right back. The twins stared at all of them, totally confused.

"Eh," Double said suddenly, drawing attention to himself. "Miss, your hammer almost flattened my foot."

Everyone stared at him.

"Eh, Skipper?" said Kowalski after a pause. "I'm starting to doubt these boys are spies. Just look at them…" Double was gnawing on the ropes binding him and Trouble back-to-back. Skipper blinked. Kowalski blinked too. Rico stared. Private shuffled his feet again and seemed to want to say something, which he did.

"I think we should withdraw our suspicion, Skippah."

"What are you talking about?" said Skipper gruffly. "What suspicion. We didn't accuse anyone of anything." He made an almost invisible motion to Rico, who severed the robes binding the twins together. "There. You're free to go, boys."

Trouble sighed, relieved it was over. Double paused, then grinned wildly and skipped up to Marlene. She blinked when Double leaned in and put a paw on the wall next to her head. She leaned away from him when Double put on an expression that was probably meant to mean something like 'I'm so hot', but looked like 'I'm nauseous'.

Marlene looked like she wanted to flee. Everyone stared at them.

Double didn't seem to notice any of this and continued to make a fool of himself by trying to flirt with a much-older-woman-than-him: "Hey sweet-cheeks!" (Wow, Double. _Smooth_, kid.)

Silence.

Then Marlene ducked around Double and ran out of the HQ.

More silence. Then…

"You're an idiot, do you know that?" Trouble said to Double. Then he turned to the penguins. "Excuse me, but where are we staying?"

Kowalski snorted after a short silence. "One of those boys is going to like their living arrangements," he laughed. When nobody laughed with him, he stopped and glanced around. He coughed. "Sorry."

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_I promise you, this is not going to be a MarlenexOC story. Flirting's all that's going to happen and that's just because Double's an idiot. Besides, it's funny. I keep imagining the stares Double's gonna get… hilarious. 'Specially because Double's flirting is terrible. Tell me what you think._


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

**Disclaimer: **_If POM was mine, do you really think it'd be as awesome as it is?_

_You have been waiting for so long, you poor things, but here it is. Chapter 19! Finally._

Let's see how the otters liked the way the humans put them in a habitat, eh?

Most of us have figured out by now that Alice and the male zoo keeper were planning to put the otter twins in Marlene's habitat – with a couple of good shoves so all of them could fit. Although…

"Actually it's kind of big, isn't it?" said Double, looking around happily.

Marlene stood as far away from him as she could manage, but nodded anyway, "Yeah," she said. "For _one otter._"

"Don't be so negative," said Double, reaching over to pet her on the head – Marlene almost broke her back in her haste to back away – and Trouble grabbed his outstretched paw and tugged him away.

"_Don't annoy the one in who's shelter we'll be living!_" he hissed.

"And you!" Double said loudly. "You're incredibly negative too! What, am I the only one here who's positive?"

…

"YES!" Trouble and Marlene chorused, then paused and turned to stare at one another.

"Aha!" Double piped up. "You said yes, so I'm not the only one being positive anymore!"

Trouble bonked him on the head.

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And why did the penguins accept the newcomers that easily? Private was asking himself the same question.

"Skippah? Why did we accept the new otters this easily?" …And, obviously, he was asking Skipper the same question too. What a coincidence. Skipper was peering through the periscope and shushed Private. "Skippah?"

The hesitant call of the Skipper's name seemed to be the trigger for Skipper to become unglued from the periscope. His blue eyes fixed themselves on Private and he snapped up the two hinges on either side of the periscope – the periscope slowly lifted up into the ceiling.

"Private," the leader of the team said slowly, as if tasting the name on his tongue, before he stepped up, confident as usual, to stand beside the younger penguin. He rested his left flipper on his left hip. "Private, Private, young Private."

"…Skippah?"

"Of course we didn't accept them, Private," the Skipper said, in a tone as if he was talking to a particular dense child. When Private opened his beak, probably to ask why, then, did they live with Marlene now, Skipper held up a flipper. "We're only giving them the chance to turn on us. And when they do… ohoh, when they do, we'll send them to Hoboken in a matchbox."

"…Oh. …Why in a matchbox?"

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**Meanwhile…**

"So, River… this is Nutmeg's shelter?" a wide-eyed Pa said.

"Yep."

"Oh. …It's not much to look at."

It wasn't. Of course, a tree stump on the ground was large for an animal like a _mouse_, and maybe just enough for three or four otters, but…

"We won't fit in there," Weird stated, surprisingly present of mind. He stepped closer. "Unless it's bigger on the inside. Is it bigger on the inside?"

"Yes," said River simply. The he looked off to the side. The others followed his gaze.

Nutmeg, River's mate, came jumping out of a bush, wearing a grass skirt of all things. She started singing and danced some weird kind of dance to a tune only she could hear.

"_Of course it's bigger on the inside, yo! We have the digging marks to prove it, yo!"_

Nutmeg abruptly stopped her terrible rhyming and skipped up to River to jump in his arms. River only just managed to avoid both of them crashing to the ground, then beamed at his mate.

"Hello Nutmeg, you sweet nutcase!"

Nutmeg, weirdly enough, giggled at that, and gestured at the tree stump. "Welcome in our humble home, that really isn't that humble once you get inside, so chop-chop, hurry up!"

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_**A/N: **I was laughing while writing that last part. I was seriously singing that too xD. Please tell me what you think!_


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